CAPITOL REPORT

The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation is poised to wash onto Florida's Atlantic Coast, and with it may come a spate of new property rights lawsuits.

The California-based foundation, established in 1973, describes itself as the right wing's answer to the American Civil Liberties Union, taking the side of small businesses and homeowners who think their property values are reduced by government regulation and growth management efforts.

PLF expects to open its first east coast office, probably in Stuart, by July 1.

''Anyone who owns property and is looking to do something with it, we would consider these people our natural allies,'' said Richard Bradley, director of strategy and development for the Sacramento, Calif.-based foundation.

''With all the property rights issues in Florida, we anticipate handling about 30 cases a year there very soon,'' he added.

Central Florida, with its seemingly endless road projects and steady growth, could prove a fertile ground for finding people looking to resist government land-use decisions.

The nonprofit foundation, which operates on a $4.2 million budget funded largely by conservative financiers, is close to meeting its $750,000 goal for its Florida budget.

If property rights isn't controversial enough, the foundation also has been an ardent supporter of California's new limits on affirmative action. Leaders, though, say the organization has no immediate plans to push such efforts in Florida.

For now, PLF's early backers include the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative; Woodrow Kantner, a Stuart developer; and Toby Prince Brigham, a Miami private property attorney who also is a heavy contributor to Tax Cap, the New Smyrna Beach-based anti-tax group.

''I think it will be a big help in boosting something that we run into almost weekly - people who are victims of government regulations,'' said David Biddulph, Tax Cap chairman.

Tax Cap had pushed a ballot initiative to strengthen the hand of property owners. But the Florida Supreme Court recently ruled the measure unconstitutional - making courts the likely venue for individual property battles.

Besides local and state governments, the natural enemy to the property rights movement is the environmental community, whose members see such groups as PLF as proponents of unbridled development.

''I'm sure Pacific will get involved in a few fights,'' said David Gluckman, lobbyist for the Florida Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups. ''But I think their arrival is really a recognition of how important environmental issues are to Floridians. The property rights movement isn't doing as well as these right-wing groups want.''

Butting out

Florida's decision to sell off some $825 million slowly in tobacco stock is causing a stir, in-state and around the nation.

Following Florida's lead, Washington state next month is expected to consider divesting cigarette stock from its $27 billion pension fund. Vermont this month divested some $10 million worth of tobacco holdings from its $1.6 billion fund.

Maryland already has agreed to divest its tobacco holdings, while New York and Massachusetts don't plan to buy any additional cigarette shares.

Not everybody, though, is ready to jump on the anti-tobacco bandwagon.

''Some of these stocks are very good performers, and we have a lot of people depending on how this pension fund does,'' said Mark Neimeiser, legislative director for the state's largest public employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

When the state eventually goes to market with its 14 million shares of Philip Morris Cos., not only will it unload tobacco stock, it will effectively shed the corporate giant's other major holdings, which include Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing Co.

That's a lot of consumer goods being taken off the state's investment shelf, analysts said.

Amy Wilson, a research manager for the nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based Investor Responsibility Research Center, said the decision by Florida and other states to divest could cause a significant ripple.

States have occasionally barred foreign investment in countries led by governments considered repressive or discriminatory. ''But isolating an industry is unique,'' Wilson said.

She added that if enough states join the divestiture movement, it could force large money managers to develop stock index funds that specifically exclude tobacco-company stocks.

Briefly . . .

Newly appointed members of the state's Constitutional Revision Commission hold their organizational meeting today and Tuesday in Tallahassee. Five former Florida governors are scheduled to attend today's session, the first of many hearings in which the state constitution undergoes its most rigorous review in 20 years.